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Find details about every creative writing competition—including poetry contests, short story competitions, essay contests, awards for novels, grants for translators, and more—that we’ve published in the Grants & Awards section of Poets & Writers Magazine during the past year. We carefully review the practices and policies of each contest before including it in the Writing Contests database, the most trusted resource for legitimate writing contests available anywhere.

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Since our founding in 1970, Poets & Writers has served as an information clearinghouse of all matters related to writing. While the range of inquiries has been broad, common themes have emerged over time. Our Top Topics for Writers addresses the most popular and pressing issues, including literary agents, copyright, MFA programs, and self-publishing.

Well over ten thousand poets and writers maintain listings in this essential resource for writers interested in connecting with their peers, as well as editors, agents, and reading series coordinators looking for authors. Apply today to join the growing community of writers who stay in touch and informed using the Directory of Writers.

Find information about more than two hundred full- and low-residency programs in creative writing in our MFA Programs database, which includes details about deadlines, funding, class size, core faculty, and more. Also included is information about more than fifty MA and PhD programs.

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Find details about every creative writing competition—including poetry contests, short story competitions, essay contests, awards for novels, grants for translators, and more—that we’ve published in the Grants & Awards section of Poets & Writers Magazine during the past year. We carefully review the practices and policies of each contest before including it in the Writing Contests database, the most trusted resource for legitimate writing contests available anywhere.

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Author Sells Shares of Royalties for Unfinished Novel

Tao Lin, the author of two poetry collections, a novel, and a story collection, last Thursday posted a rather unusual offer on his blog. For two thousand dollars, readers can purchase a 10-percent share of the royalties, including all U.S. serial, reprint, textbook, and film royalties, for his unfinished novel, which is tentatively scheduled for publication next year by Melville House, an independent press in Brooklyn, New York. Tao, who writes on reader-of-depressing-books.blogspot.com about how he recently quit his job and needs money in order to have time to write, is a poetry editor of 3:AM Magazine.

Based on sales of his first novel, EEEEE EEE EEEE (Melville House, 2007), Tao projects sales of his second novel to be approximately thirteeen thousand after two years. "If
there is more mainstream attention, and I think there is a 80- to 90-percent
chance there will be, sales will be 'considerably higher,'" he writes on his blog.
"Regardless of the amount of mainstream attention that happens, I believe
that in the long term, sales will remain steady and that my second novel
will remain in print. Based on what I know about my publisher, myself, the book, and my other books, I do not at all think that my second novel will 'fail' the above projection." At least a handful of readers out there share his confidence: Five of the six shares offered for sale on Tao's blog have already been sold.

Just in case Tao's projected returns aren't enough to convince potential shareholders, the author offers a more personal approach: "People who buy shares will also have more meaning in life....You can
call yourself a 'producer' of my second novel if you want to do that." And if trust is an issue, Tao writes, "I promise I will not kill myself within five to ten years. Really I don't think 'trust' is an issue, I feel like people can
trust me."

One thing readers can certainly trust is that the twenty-five-year-old author will stop at nothing to generate publicity—like the kind he's getting by offering shares of an unfinished novel—for this now-public project.